Northville Baseball, Soccer Clubs Could Face Higher Fees

The Commission may charge sport clubs more money for use of the local ball fields, in an attempt to have taxpayers pay less to subsidize the maintenance and upkeep.

However, at least one club is questioning the commission’s new figures. At its meeting Tuesday night, the commission voted to hold off on new contracts with the clubs for two months to negotiate what could be tens of thousands of dollars in new charges.

In a recently created expense summary, the commission reports that in 2010 it spent a total of $661,821 last year – $442,403 more than it receives in fees, to maintain the parks for private groups, mostly for clubs such as the Northville Soccer Association and Northville Baseball Softball Association.

These clubs rent the fields for private games, and have traditionally been charged only direct costs incurred by the commission for expenses such as painting stripes on the field or electricity costs for lights used during night games.

The soccer and baseball associations use the parks more than any other private users. In 2010, the soccer club paid $43,233 for two seasons, and the baseball club paid $51,844 for its once-a-year season, according to a Park Allocation Fund Summary recently computed by the commission.

According to the new commission funding report, however, the commission is actually paying more than double those amounts on maintenance. About $163,500 is spent to maintain the soccer fields per year, and $119,00 per year is spent to maintain the baseball fields.

Pat Sullivan, city manager of Northville, said the extra charges come from trying to estimate both direct and indirect costs borne by the commission to maintain and run the fields. Indirect costs include field maintenance, water, and grass cutting, services that may get done regardless of whether the clubs use the fields.

The commission will now sit down with the baseball and soccer associations to discuss a possible increase in fees. The commission is expected to vote on the issue at its May meeting, and any new costs would take effect for baseball next year and for soccer in the fall 2011 season.

Jack Klarr, president of the baseball association, said the group is just learning of the possible increases and needs to study the figures.

More than 1,000 children and teens play in the baseball association, said Gary Nayh, the baseball association secretary. He said the association is open to paying what is fair.

“We want to be good community partners,” Nayh said.

Steve McGuirk, president of the soccer association, was more skeptical of the proposed fee increase. He said he believes the association, with more than 4,000 children playing in twice-a-year leagues, already pays for what it uses.

“I’d like to see what these extra charges are,” he said. “For example, we already pay $25 per night game for use of the lights. I think it’s in the best interest of a community to support this type of recreation, in a state that’s in one of the top 10 most obese in the country.”

Nancy Darga, a commission member and a Northville City Councilwoman, said at Wednesday’s meeting that she just wants the clubs to be charged fairly. “I hope that any agreement will be equitable to all sports, and that one will not pay a higher percentage of its costs than the other. It’s unrealistic to expect these teams to have to pay 100 percent of the costs,” she said.

According to the recent commission summary, the baseball association pays about 44 percent of what resources it uses, while the soccer association pays 26 percent.

Mark Abbo, a commission member and also supervisor of Northville Township, said there is no intention of charging so much that the clubs move elsewhere.

“We have a long-standing tradition of having them here, they bring a great benefit to the area,” Abbo said.

Both Northville Township and the smaller Northville city partner on the commission. The township funds the commission by 80 percent, while the city funds 20 percent.